


Fugitive

by Hijja



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-14
Updated: 2010-11-14
Packaged: 2017-10-13 05:13:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/133351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hijja/pseuds/Hijja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the darkest days of the war, Percy Weasley receives an unexpected visitor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fugitive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lady Green Bat](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Lady+Green+Bat).



> Written for Lady Green Bat as an Ownficfest Giftlet

In the dark, Percy saw the figure crouching on his balcony like a miserable gargoyle at second glance only. When it moved, he went for his wand, but froze when the hood slipped back and revealed a rain-drenched, familiar face.

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his kitchen, closing the curtains behind him.

"Penny, you're crazy coming here," he hissed. "The area is crawling with Snatchers."

"I noticed," Penelope Clearwater muttered, and only now Percy saw the torn sleeve, the bloody cut that ran from upper arm to wrist.

Without another word he bundled her into his cramped bathroom, as efficient as mum on her best day, and with a lot less fuss to boot.

Half an hour later, Penny was settled on Percy's couch, showered, her injury bandaged with healing potion, and wrapped in Percy's terrycloth bathrobe while her robe dried next to the fireplace.

"I'm sorry," said Penny. "I shouldn't have come, but… I really need help."

"I'd hoped you'd gone underground in the Muggle world," Percy said. After school, when Percy had joined the Ministry and lost sight of everything else, she'd gone to work for the Foreign Imports Department of Eeylops. They'd met up for two or three more dates, and then just drifted apart.

Penny ran a hand through her damp hair. "There were a few of us who wanted to fight back when we were all sacked and summoned by the Muggleborn Registration Commission. I hid in the attic of some old codger, Diggle, who claimed to have been in Professor Dumbledore's old Order." She paused and shrugged. "Perhaps he was. He knew a lot of quirky tricks. Young Edgecombe of my house - her mother got her a job at the Department for Magical Transportation. She gave us the spell to make magical memos, and we used it to send flyers about You-Know-Who controlling the Ministry and Muggleborns stealing magic being an absurd lie all over the Ministry and Diagon…"

Percy laughed out. "That was you?" The action had sent a shiver of suppressed, downcast-eyed hilarity through those who opposed the new regime, even as it stoked the fury of the others. "Everybody thought it was the Order of the Phoenix, or Potter."

"Yes." Penny snorted. "That's why they sent a bunch of Death Eaters after us. I have no idea how they found us. Maybe they got Marietta, her mum's always been a Ministry toady. They burned Diggle's house to the ground, and if Adrian Pucey hadn't held them off, they'd have got me too." She hid her face and took the tissue Percy handed her. "I don't think he survived – maybe it's better he hasn't. He was a Slytherin, and they hate 'blood traitors' even more than mudbloods."

Percy put his hand on hers. It was hard to face that quiet, studious Penny Clearwater had gone to fight Death Eaters. "What can I do?" he asked.

She looked down on their hands. "I know that you've broken with your family, Percy. But everybody says your brothers are involved with the resistance, and with Potterwatch. Can they help get me to safety?"

Biting the inside of his cheek, Percy closed his eyes for a moment, then cursed himself silently. What were a few grudges and hurt feelings in the middle of a war!

"I think I could-"

A sharp rap on the door made them both jump. Penny's face went white. Percy drew his wand and pointed it at her, mouthing, "Trust me." After a split second's hesitation, she nodded.

Focusing every bit of NEWT-honed power, Percy whispered the incantation. Penny's body twitched once, then melted into a large fluffy duvet on the couch that still sported the blue-grey swirls of Percy's bathrobe. Another bit of Transfiguration, which he nearly bungled when a fist banged on the door transfigured Penelope's robe into a black pillow. He tossed it onto the foot end of the couch on his way to the door.

One deep breath, and he pulled it open with a rude, "What?"

And stared into the toothy grin of the head of the band of Snatchers - pardon, the Homestead Security Unit that patrolled Percy's block of Ministry flats in Magic Alley.

"I didn't request any assistance," Percy stated with a frown, and made to shut the door.

As expected, the creature stopped it with his foot. "Mr Weasley, voices have been reported coming from your flat, and as you were seen coming home alone..."

Percy deepened his frown. "Well, of course there were voices. I brought my Quick Quotes Quill and work home." He gestured at his desk, cluttered with paperwork, the only part of his flat that wasn't pristine. "Now, would you mind? I have 300 more files on Muggle-Repelling Spellwork to get through before morning."

When the Snatcher lingered, rat-like eyes flicking through the living room, Percy fixed him with a steely look. "Or would you like to have a look around, to make sure there's no threat to me anywhere?" he asked in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

The Snatcher shot him a venomous look, but waved inside two of the cronies lurking behind him. They quickly went through Percy's tiny flat, amazingly without breaking anything. One even lifted the blanket and peered underneath.

Percy drummed his fingers until they returned, shaking their heads, and were pointed outside by their boss.

"You won't always be that high and mighty," the Head Snatcher hissed. "One day those blood traitors you call family will drag you down with them."

"But unlike others," Percy shot back coldly, "I won't have to worry about the outcome of my next Blood Status Revision." It was an open secret that the Snatchers recruited from the dregs of wizarding society, among those who'd be willing to serve under a werewolf.

With a parting glare that told Percy he'd made an implacable enemy, the Snatcher followed his cronies out.

Percy shut the door and locked it behind them, then collapsed into his armchair. His fingers shook when he aimed his wand and returned Penny to her natural shape.

She shuddered and rubbed her arms for a moment, then looked at him with a slightly cocked head. "You were very convincing."

Somehow, Percy didn't feel as if it was an unmitigated compliment. "They're like a pack of wild dogs - show weakness, and they'll chomp down on you."

She looked away and nodded. "You really did McGonagall proud there."

Percy let out a shaky laugh. "Thank god they had no Probity Probe." At times, Ministry snobbery about giving out expensive equipment could be a blessing. "I was worried I wouldn't have the energy to turn you back," he admitted.

"Well, that would've solved the escape problem."

For a moment, they giggled like children with heady relief. Then Percy said, "I can get in touch with the twins, I think - they won't trust you right away on my say-so, but they'll help you get away."

They didn't speak when Percy's swan Patronus rose into the air from the balcony window, disappearing into the rainy night in a rush of silvery feathers, nor when, before dawnbreak, a wet hawk owl dropped a palm-sized pouch filled with multicoloured Floo Powder on the balcony tiles before taking off again.

They embraced, then shared a quick, almost embarrassed kiss before Penny cast the handful of powder into the flames of Percy's fireplace, and disappeared to wherever the twins would be waiting, leaving Percy with his files, his deserted flat and a discarded bathrobe still smelling faintly of Penny's hair and skin.

And a few short weeks later, when instead of the copies of Minister Thicknesse's memos Percy had taken to send to Aberforth Dumbledore he received Aberforth's gruff note that the fight was on, Percy grabbed his cloak and his wand with a smile. His heart lighter than had been since the doors of Hogwarts had closed behind him, he went to join his family, and Penelope, in the final battle.

  
_~ finis ~_   



End file.
